Less Stress: Wake Up Earlier
I used to wake up every morning about an hour before I wanted to be at school. I try to get there by 7:20, so that meant waking up around 6:20. That resulted in an extremely rushed morning. Plus the traffic at my new school is way heavier than the traffic was at my old school. I literally have to leave my house at 7 to make it there by 7:20. And I live less than 3 miles away…
So I have gotten into the habit of waking up around 5:30 or earlier most mornings. This lets me have some time to stretch and get my body moving some before getting in the shower and not being rushed. I am able to peacefully get dressed, feed my dogs, feed myself, and go on my way. I also am able to spend some quality time in prayer before moving on with the day.
So how do I do it? Leo has some great hints at Zen Habits. This guy has some stuff that is pure gold. I like the thing about not making drastic changes. I am still working on carving out more time in the morning. I would like to be able to be up by 5:00 every morning. Right now, 5:30 is pretty comfortable, but I am going to try for 5:20 this week, 5:10 the next week, and 5:00 in two weeks. of course going to sleep earlier is one of the keys.
Being in control of my environment when I come into the school is a great thing. Instead of getting there and already having kids lined up at the door to drop their instruments off and come in, I am in the band hall by myself and am able to really get the day started off well.
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